Allow me to start this blog post by wishing you a very happy new year! May it be healthy and prosperous.
As often happens towards the end of a year, I’ve been a bit reflective. I’ve considered my own behaviour over the past 12 months and come up with a few resolutions for improving my parenting and how I spend time with the children and family. I thought I’d share them with you.
- I’m going to do more arts and crafts with the children. Over the past few weeks both my girls (Helen and Elizabeth) have spent hours completing and colouring in activity sheets. It’s something they’ve asked to do and they really enjoy it. We’re going to stick with the activity sheets, but a bit more gluing, sticking and painting may also be in order. It’s something we’ve always done, but possibly not enough.
- The children will be encouraged to look after their toys and possessions. I often look at the toy chest in the corner of the living room and my heart sinks. There are misplaced playing cards, misplaced building blocks and so on, all of them just rammed in there. As a family, I think we’ve got lazy and just dumped toys in the chest to keep the house tidy (yes, mum and dad are to blame for this behaviour as much as the kids). This sends the wrong message out to the little ones and Mrs Adams and I must start leading by example.
- Mum and dad are going to make a greater effort to save for the kids’ future. We started taking this much more seriously in 2014. Even so, we need to put more aside to ensure the kids have a decent nest egg. I think you have to start these things when they’re young.
- I will redouble my efforts to speak French with both the children. My French is appalling. For those old enough to remember, think of the French policeman from ‘Allo ‘Allo. Even so, we have French speaking relatives and I struggle to communicate with them as I was never taught the language properly. I think it’s vital the children learn more than one language and while I have taught Helen the basics, it’s something I have got a bit lazy about. Unfortunately this falls to me to do solo as Mrs Adams doesn’t speak a word of the language.
- Library books will be returned to the library on their due date. I’m delighted to say the kids absolutely love visiting the library. Going with them is a real joy and I love it. The awful truth, however, is that we always return library books late and on two occasions have lost books altogether and had to pay for replacements. I think 2015 is the year we’re going to get organised and make sure books are returned on time.
So those are a few of the things I am going to do in 2015. Do you have plans to improve the way you spend time with your family? Leave a comment, I’d love to know.
10 thoughts on “My parenting resolutions for 2015”
Great resolutions. Me and my hubby also put away for our children every month. It’s definitely important to think about it whilst they are young as time slips away so quickly. Great idea about the language, I would like my son to learn another language to. #TheList
Great resolutions. I can relate to all of them if I swap the French for Spanish and actually go to a library with the kids in the first place (oops). Happy New Year!
Spanish is an easier language to learn that French so go with it! Thanks for commenting.
I love these. I agree with no.1 I am going to try to do this far more this year too. My twins are starting to love crafts and making things, and I enjoy the time with them. Happy New Year!! Jess #thelist
Happy new year to you also and best of luck with your arts and crafts in 2015!
Oh these are great, I need to do more crafts with Baby, take care of her toys and I need to learn French (as we more there in 2016!) Good luck with them all and thanks for linking to #TheList x
We’re slowly getting back into speaking French. We used some learn French audio books on a recent road trip and it worked very well. Good luck!
You’ve got some great ideas there. I’d like to do more arts and crafts although we need to work out a wintertime art space in our house. Saving is another biggie although this was scuppered by me becoming a full-time dad. Do want to try to find some funds to put away incrementally though.
Dan, saving can be so difficult. We do it, but it’s something we have to get much, much better at. Very best of luck with your savings plans and winter art space.
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